Grim Or Grin

Chapter 11: School (Part 2)

Chapter 11: School (Part 2)

The smooth flanks and rounded edges of the folded paper in my hand acted as a constant reminder of the questions I needed to ask Cole. If anything, Cole did not mind many questions unlike Daemon. 'He could lie though,' I thought as I waited for class to be dismissed, for us to go for the break as stated in our timetables.

It was probably one of the longest waits in my life. Not only was time ticking slower than usual because I paid more attention to it, Mr. Park had dragged on the lesson. Normally, he would not and even if he did, everyone liked his chemistry lessons. It was humorous with his exaggerative hand gestures and actions. Occasionally, he would drop obvious hints too for our upcoming tests (it was tests only though as he had strict rules to never hint for exams so that the exams will capture better reflections of our progress) by starting the lesson with, "Please look out for hints, which I will highlight via sudden random contraction of illness." He would cough so obviously when it came to the hint that it was impossible to miss out. Sometimes, we would get to enquire about his life in South Korea too (Mr. Park is Korean and 'Park' is actually the romanisation of his Korean surname.)

I did liked his lessons but sometimes, like on this occasion, it felt like it was a reiteration of facts and to add on to it, I really wanted to get through the list of questions I had thought up. Surely, they would prompt more questions and I needed all the time I had if I wanted answers.

The second hand was gnawing at me with its painfully slow tick, tick, tick... When are we going to be dismissed?

Finally, the words I wanted to hear came - "Thank you, Class."

"Thank you, Mr. Park," the class responds in the usual fashion - dragging on the 'a' and 'you' - so it sounded like "Thaaaaaaaaank yoooooouuuu, Mr. Paaark." A few students shot out of class as if their lives depended on it. Some stayed behind to ask Mr. Park for clarification on some chemistry stuff. Thankfully, Cole had not fallen into either of these groups of students or it would have been hard to talk to him.

I made my way towards his table and asked to talk to him. He responded with a curt nod.

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We managed to find a table in one of the more secluded areas of the school. Normally, an incident like this would be a cause for rumours but there was not going to be anything interesting to talk about for the introvert and self-curfew-imposer. It would be simply taken as a PW discussion and not anything at all like Leo and Pam, which I was thankful for. I did not like people to misunderstand the situation. The PW discussion also served as excellent cover for this conversation.

I recounted the conversation I had with Daemon to confirm if what he had said was true but omitted the part about his knife being used to cut the cake. I wondered if he would have gagged when he heard it, knowing that the same knife used to take lives was the same one used to halve the cake.

Cole's POV

Surprisingly, Daemon had not lied about anything and I wondered why. He couldn't possibly be trying to befriend Lyla, could he? Besides, he could have just used the term, 'friends', and I had even suggested the idea before but he had flat out disagreed. Carrying around this secret of ours was becoming hard with Daemon gaining more and more importance to the police. I had seen a few videos of other people who had dissociative identity disorder (DID) as well and it seemed that having friends who knew helped. "What he said is true," I replied.

'Cole,' Daemon said, startling me. 'Someone is watching us again.'

'Who?'

"Erm... Cole, are you all right?" Lyla questioned, wearing a worried expression that was mixed with confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"You looked surprised and kind of zoned out earlier," she explained. Was it that obvious that I was conversing with- "Was it Daem-"

"Yes," I cut her off and added, "Erm... hold on for a second..."

'And Where?'

'I don't know who but it seems to be the same person as the start of the year. Behind the lockers.'

Lyla was giving me a weird expression again. "We need to move."

Pamela's POV

I swore in my head. I was at a bad angle. I could read lips well but with the way I was facing I could only see Cole's face. Layla's was well hidden from my view so I was mainly lost in the conversation. 'Lyla, why are you doing this? I told you to tell me,' I thought. My back was pressed against the wall and my entire body hid in the small but dark shadow casted by the lockers.

I only got something like "What he said is true."and "Yes, hold on for a second." The statements were so vague that I could not even guess what Lyla had said and what had he meant by 'hold on a second'. Wait, they are moving. He saw me? I felt my eyes widened in disbelief. How did he see me? I was sure he was focused on the conversation. His peripheral vision should not have been that good.

'They are moving here!' my brain screamed at me and I bolted in the direction towards Leo. I still stuck to the shadows and made sure to land my feet as softly as possible. This was my speciality. I made a sharp turn and ran a few more metres towards the canteen silently. "What happened?" Leo mouthed as he got up from his leaning position against the wall.

"Walk," I gave a quiet command. We walked side by side at a normal pace through the way I had just come from, making it seem like we had just left the canteen.

Just then, they had made the turn and were now walking towards us. "-just need to grab a snack from the canteen," I overheard Cole say. Had they simply moved because they were finished? And I was that panicky earlier just because of that.

"Lyla! Why didn't you tell me?" I asked, masking the shock I had experienced just now. That was close, too close.

"Sorry, I forgot," she apologised but the flicker of insincerity showed on her face, a telltale microexpression that she was lying.

"Another PW discussion?" Leo questioned neutrally, no implication whatsoever.

Lyla's POV

"Yeah, we've some ambitious plans for PW so we're kind of discussing more than usual," Cole, or more appropriately Daemon, replied with no uncertainty in it like we really had simply discussed that. If he was lying, he had not showed it. Not that I could tell.

"Never mind. We're even now. You forgot and I kind of ditched you last Saturday," Pam said forgivingly. "But you better tell me next time." Protective as ever.

"Okay." Leo and her walked away and I felt myself loosen up. Lying was not my thing. I had not told Pam as it would not be possible to ask Cole for answers then.

"You're a terrible actress," Daemon mused, which reminded me that he had switched places with Cole because he was the more convincing actor. We had moved as he had suspected there was someone watching the conversation. However, it seemed that the person had escaped without a trace and I wondered if we were really being watched. Daemon could be wrong. "Naïve," he said.

I frowned at Daemon, "What do you mean by naïve?"

Daemon shook his head in what seemed like disappointment but when he said, "He could be referring to the watcher.", I realized it was Cole again. The switching was confusing and came without any signs unlike the little conversations Cole and Daemon may have. "Do you have plans after school?"

"No."

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A/N: How are Pam and Leo involved? Hint*

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